Medicare is an essential part of life for any American over 65. It saves many vulnerable seniors from being wiped out by escalating health costs. But it’s far from a perfect system. It’s complicated, and many new enrollees get the unpleasant surprise of the “donut hole”— the gap in coverage for medications that lies between Medicare’s regular limits and its catastrophic coverage threshold. This episode is for those Americans approaching 65 who have yet to go through Medicare initiation to prepare them for one of life’s major rites of passage.